Troika's tunnel vision

Troika's techno-clockwork sign for the V&A's underground entrance encapsulates both the appeal of the V&A and the studio's meticulously crafted brand of digital design

Video Transcript

Sebastian Noel, Co-founder, TROIKA

We got inspired originally by the logo itself because the logo has a lot of symmetry, has a lot of parallels, a beautiful logo from Alan Fletcher. Because the sign was to be located in the V&A Tunnel it needed to be seen from both sides and we noted there was quite an interesting form of symmetry in the logo itself that would enable us to reverse it.

We love the V&A because of specifically that, because it encompasses a very long stretch of history but that embraces modernity at the same time and that’s what we’ve tried to create there. So there are very old elements like brass work, etching, varied techniques that are used to materialise the sign, to materialise the idea. There is clockwork, loads of gears, something that reminds you of the past really and combined with that you have a very strong modern element, a huge acrylic tube, a very cold colour, we used a very strong electric blue for the letters themselves, a very strong gloss finish, things like that.

We were thinking in the studio, we don’t quite know what we’ve created there, there’s something but we don’t know if it’s a sign or an object or an installation. It definitely feels like something in between and for that I think it’s successful and we are very pleased by it.

When digital wizards Troika were asked to create a new sign for the V&A's underground entrance they turned to Alan Fletcher's classic logo for for inspiration.The techno-clockwork character of the sign - shiny acrylic materials and colours combined with traditional gears - also aims to reflect the V&A's ability to showcase treasures of the past while embracing modernity.

"The sign needed to be readable from both sides and we noticed that there was an interesting symmetry in the logo that allowed us to reverse it."